Postcards from the Edge
left | writer = Rebecca Sonnenshine | director = Pascal Verschooris | previous = Things We Lost in the Fire | next = This Woman's Work }} Postcards from the Edge is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of The Vampire Diaries and the one hundred and forty-fifth episode of the series overall. Summary DAMON’S DARK DESCENT – When his experience in the Phoenix stone leads him to do the unthinkable, Damon finds himself without a care in the world, spiraling out of control and under the influence of a dangerous and reckless Julian. Refusing to give up on his brother, Stefan attempts to reason with Damon only to uncover the devastating reason for his descent. Elsewhere, Caroline begins having some dangerous side effects as a result of her supernatural pregnancy and is forced to turn to Valerie for help. Meanwhile, Bonnie, Nora and Mary Louise attempt to track down a ruthless vampire hunter named Rayna after they suspect that she has reemerged. Matt and Enzo also appear. Plot }} Cast Main Cast *Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore *Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore *Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett *Candice King as Caroline Forbes *Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan *Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman (credit only) *Michael Malarkey as Enzo Recurring Cast *Elizabeth Blackmore as Valerie Tulle *Scarlett Byrne as Nora Hildegard *Teressa Liane as Mary Louise *Todd Lasance as Julian Guest Cast *Leslie-Anne Huff as Rayna Trivia *'Stefan and Damon are both trapped in the Phoenix Stone. What can you reveal about their different experiences inside?'' :Caroline Dries: Episode 10 will be primarily in Damon's experience of the Phoenix Stone. Through the course of the season, Damon struggled with his relationship with his mom and his willingness to open up his heart to her, open up his heart to the concept of forgiveness. So the Phoenix Stone in our minds is like one's own personal hell, handcrafted specifically for the person who gets stabbed with that sword. So for Damon, we get to explore the consequences of his inability to forgive people, and the mistakes he's made in the past surface and he needs to deal with them. *'The soul put inside Jo's body didn't remember her past or who she was. Is that a potential side effect facing either Damon or Stefan?' :Dries: It's a side effect if they don't figure out how to get the soul into the right body. Jo's soul was never in that stone, so they didn't understand how the science of it worked. Now, the guys understand that if your soul is in that stone and your body is still corporeal, in a way you can fix it so the soul returns to your body. So that's a minor complication as they figure out, "We've got to do this spell right since we've seen it go horribly wrong." *'In the first half of the season, Stefan and Damon were very divided over how they felt towards Lily (Annie Wersching). Now that their mother is dead, and under such heartbreaking circumstances, will that affect their relationship?' :Dries: It will affect their relationship, but it's more about how Damon's ability or inability to deal with it just makes things worse in Damon's life in general. His relationship with Lily is a microcosm for Damon's relationship with the world. I think once he figures out how to not be selfish in every single situation that involves his emotions, he won't really be able to move on in any relationship, and that involves his relationship with his brother too. *'Bonnie has been Damon's main support system for a while now. How might we see her continue to help and support him during this?' :Dries: Bonnie will continue to be a loyal friend to Damon and a very supportive person for him to lean on as he goes through the drama of the second half of the season. But their relationship will also face its own obstacles down the road. For us writers, it's a very interesting dynamic to play because they both have such great chemistry on-screen, so they play off each other so well. Damon has a friend in Alaric (Matthew Davis), but Alaric has this whole other world of drama with Caroline and the babies and everything. So really, Bonnie and Stefan are the grounding forces in Damon's life. So for him to put his relationship with Bonnie at stake would really, really have bad consequences for Damon, for sure. *'Bonnie and Enzo (Michael Malarkey) were an unexpected couple, but one that I already love. How will we see their relationship progress in the upcoming episodes?' :Dries: We're going to continue to lean into the fact that they are sort of on opposing sides and can't stand each other. It keeps the audience wondering, "How the heck did these two get together? It makes no sense." Eventually it will make sense, but for now we're playing with their spicy fireworks on camera. *'We know that Caroline eventually winds up engaged to Alaric. How will we see that relationship develop over the course of the season?' :Dries: Their relationship was anything but natural in the way that it's come about, and we're playing into that. Caroline, at this moment in the show, is madly in love with Stefan and she's been in love with him for a while now. Those feelings don't just go away, so obviously other complications are going to arise. It's more about Caroline and Stefan, their relationship on-camera, that we'll actually be playing with, and a little less about Alaric and Caroline's on-camera relationship, which will make sense once it plays out. It's very complicated. I would say it's not a natural love story. *'Caroline wants nothing to do with Stefan in the future, so will we start to see the seeds of that begin to surface in the present?' :Dries: Yeah, we'll start to understand all the drama what happened that basically drove Caroline to move to Dallas, to be engaged to Alaric, to start this whole other life where she's a producer on a news station. That will all make sense as Stefan keeps getting these dramatic things thrown at him. *'Are there any happy Stefan and Caroline moments to look forward to in these episodes?' :Dries: For sure. Since we knew we were putting that out there right away in the second episode - that something terrible happens between Caroline and Stefan - we still wanted the audience to enjoy their present day relationship. It's still very rich, and with them, it's more tragic than anything else. *'How soon should we expect Caroline to give birth to the twins?' :Dries: You could expect it sooner than later. *'What's the dynamic like between Stefan and Alaric now that Caroline's carrying Alaric's babies?' :Dries: It's a very complicated dynamic between them. They don't have a ton of scenes together, but there's a feeling that they're both really good guys and it's a situation that nobody asked for. So Stefan can't really hold a grudge against Alaric, but at the same time Stefan is beginning to feel like a third wheel. Not to mention, his relationship with Damon is always kind of pulling him away from Caroline's needs, so that's just anther obstacles in their relationship. Stefan has a lot on his plate. *'We still haven't seen Matt (Zach Roerig) in a flash-forward. Should we be worried about him surviving that long?' :Dries: Yes! Where the heck is he? Yeah, you should be very, very concerned about that. *'Lily was the uniting force in the Heretic family, so what will happen to them now that she's out of the picture?' :Dries: When Lily left, it was like a bomb went off in the Heretic family. They were all feeling displaced and trying to figure out where they fit in the world. Mary Louise (Teressa Liane) and Nora (Scarlett Byrne) are going to struggle a little in their relationship. Nora is always looking to expand her horizons and experience the new, modern world, where Mary Louise is much more comfortable at home and under Lily's rule, so to speak, because she's more traditional and likes order and is a little intimidated by the new world. So their relationship will have some bumps. Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore) is going to continue to be Stefan's confidante moving forward, as Stefan starts to struggle to keep Damon's sanity in check. So Valerie becomes this third wheel in the Caroline-Stefan relationship because she's the most knowledgeable about everything that's happening with Damon. As a side effect of that, Stefan and Valerie are finding reasons to get closer and closer. http://www.tvguide.com/news/the-vampire-diaries-season-7-spoilers-caroline-dries/ *'DAMON & STEFAN' | “Even though Damon has escaped hell … when you exit that Phoenix Stone, you’re a changed person,” Dries explains. “What we get to see in the next episode is Damon really really mess things up. Stefan, who had his own journey that we didn’t see — and we’re not going to see the way we saw with Damon — has been through that. We’re trying to create a bit of intrigue; Stefan has survived it and learned some lessons from it, but can Stefan warn Damon in time of what it means to actually get out of there? It’s sort of Damon’s hell on earth now, moving forward.” As for Stefan’s love life, his friendship with Valerie will “evolve,” leaving Caroline to wonder, “Where did my boyfriend go?” *'CAROLINE' | Here’s my advice: Enjoy your time with television’s most pregnant vampire while you can, because Caroline Forbes is about to be in short supply. Due to Candice King’s real life pregnancy, the actress was written out of five episodes, and Dries says her return date depends on when she’s willing and able to come back to work. (Dries guesses she’ll be seen again in Episode 20 or 21.) That said, Caroline “still feels like she’s in the ether in that five episode chunk she’s gone.” *'BONNIE' | In addition to continuing her “bickersome” relationship with Enzo, Bonnie will also keep exploiting the “fissure” between Nora and Mary Louise — particularly when “they become interested in the same thing.” *'ENZO' | Damon’s former best friend will remain in the shadows for a short while longer — he was last seen being thrown into the back of a van by one Matt Donovan — but Dries insists that his absence is not in vain. “Enzo’s universe is going to broaden the scope of the show towards the end of the season,” she says. “It’s going to enlighten us about Enzo’s backstory. We’ll get to know him and that’s what’ll help bring him closer to Bonnie.” (Bonus scoop: As TVLine exclusively reported, Enzo’s storyline will be tied to a new character named Alex, the head of a mysterious organization.) http://tvline.com/2016/01/29/vampire-diaries-damon-attacks-caroline-season-7-recap-spoilers/ * The vampire huntress Rayna (Leslie-Anne Huff), who will be formally introduced in Episode 12, is after Stefan because he was stabbed by the Phoenix Stone Sword. "Pretty much everyone gets in her cross-hairs," Annie Wersching tells TVGuide.com. "But anyone with the X scar on their body - it opens up for Stefan as you can see in the flash-forwards - and she's obviously hunting him. Stefan is the biggest goal for her that she's trying to flush out." * "As we saw Stefan and Damon both get stabbed by that sword, we start to understand what the heck is going on with that mythology. It's all together," showrunner Caroline Dries explains. "Once we understand the rules of that sword and who owns it and who's compelled by the sword, essentially, to kill vampires, it'll all make sense." * Damon isn’t the only angsty guy in Mystic Falls suffering from a post-Phoenix Stone grief hangover. Julian is more unhinged that ever, and a “pretty substantial” run-in with Damon may just have huge repercussions on Bonnie and Matt’s fight to save the town. * “Julian is a badass… you do not want to mess with Julian,” Somerhalder said. “He is just as volatile as Damon, but what is the common thread? Love. His love for Lily is what really sent him over the other side. His love and loss of her really destroyed that guy. It messed him up.” * In the promo, Damon tells Stefan that he killed Elena in the previous episode with Stefan then proceeding to punch him in the face. Continuity *Enzo was last seen in Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me. *Valerie and Mary Louise were last seen in Cold as Ice. Behind the Scenes Cultural References *'' '' is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical of the same title. The film starred Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine and Dennis Quaid. *" " is the episode of the CBS TV series , an American drama television series loosely based on the life of computer expert Walter O'Brien. Quotes |-|Promo= : Damon: I wanna feel every moment of this miserable life! : '''Julian: "I have just the outlet for the....overwhelming you must be feeling." : Damon: "Bring it on." : Damon: "I can't imagine caring about anyone ever again. Not a soul....solitary soul." : Stefan: "What did you do!?" : Damon: "I killed Elena." |-|Extended Promo= : Damon: You ever done anything so horrific you couldn't even look yourself in the mirror. : Julian: "I have just the outlet for the....overwhelming you must be feeling." : Damon: "Bring it on." : Stefan (to Damon): Do not get into that ring! : Damon: "I can't imagine caring about anyone ever again. Not a soul....solitary soul." : Stefan: "What did you do!?" : Damon: "I killed Elena." |-|Webclip #1= Multimedia Soundtrack Videos The Vampire Diaries 7x12 Promo "Postcards from the Edge" (HD) The Vampire Diaries Postcards From The Edge Trailer The CW The Vampire Diaries 7x12 Webclip 1 - Postcards from the Edge HD Pictures |-|Promotional= TVD712b_0092b.jpg TVD712b_0263b.jpg TVD712-Damon-Stefan.jpg TVD712b_0141b.jpg TVD712b_0367b.jpg |-|Screenshots= |-|Behind the Scenes= 2015-11-06_Ian_Somerhalder_Instagram.jpg|Ian Somerhalder November 5, 2015 2015-11-05_Ian_Somerhalder_Twitter.jpg|©Ian Somerhalder November 5, 2015 2015-11-05_Cornell_Willis_Instagram.jpg|©Cornell Willis November 5, 2015 2015-11-05_Kellie_Cyrus_Rebecca_Sonnenshine_Twitter.jpg|Rebecca Sonnenshine, Kellie Cyrus November 5, 2015 2015-11-04_Ian_Somerhalder_Instagram.jpg|©Ian Somerhalder November 4, 2015 2015-11-03_Michael_Malarkey_Instagram.jpg|©Michael Malarkey November 3, 2015 References See also Category:Vampire Diaries Episode Guide Category:Upcoming Episodes Category:The Vampire Diaries Season Seven